It's A Matter Of Tone, Mr. Carlucci

Former Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci's criticism of calls to convert military industries to peacetime uses should be greeted with skepticism.

"I think conversion is an optical illusion believed only by our Congress and the Soviets," Mr. Carlucci said last week in remarks to the Connecticut Business & Industry Association's annual meeting.

He's right in the sense that a plant for making submarines isn't easily transformed into a production line for "baby carriages," to use his example.

At some point, if the nation no longer needed a product, and that product is unique, such a facility would be obsolete. That's the history of manufacturing.

But many other military contractors have been successful or could be successful in finding civilian markets for their products. Or they can adapt their products and manufacturing facilities to peacetime needs. Surely such planning should not be ridiculed.

Mr. Carlucci also seemed to give short shrift to programs to help defense workers laid off because of Pentagon budget cuts. "I don't think there should be any new programs," he said, noting that about 200 relief bills have been introduced in Congress.

In Connecticut, tens of thousands of high-paying jobs will be lost as the military establishment is trimmed. The federal government must intercede to cushion the blow. Where industries can't convert, help must be given to companies to diversify, to market the skills of workers or retrain them and to help the defense-dependent communities cope.

Mr. Carlucci sits on the board of a company that may find it difficult to convert its submarine-building plant to a civilian use. But he ought not to belittle conversion efforts and he should show greater sensitivity to the economic damage sustained by states that have been dependent on the Pentagon dollar.